This is How to Be Free by Epictetus + Other Salient Meditations
Freedom lies in perception.
Freedom equates to happiness according to the Stoics.
What Epictetus recommends isn’t complete liberation from the consequences of your actions, but freedom of mind so you don’t suffer for yearning after what you don’t or can’t possess.
So you can take risks without crippling worry.
So you don’t disrespect yourself. Or make costly decisions because you were overcome by unbridled desire.
So you can direct your full attention and time toward wise strategic moves that’ll liberate you in the real world.
You’ve attained this freedom if you can lose everything and still be happy. Not giddy; but at least you’re not spiraling on a self-destructive path.
For that to happen, it’s wise to know
“Some things in the world are up to us, while others are not. Up to us are our faculties of judgment, *motivation, *desire, and *aversion—in short, everything that is our own doing. Not up to us are our body and property, our reputations, and our official positions—in short, everything that is not our own doing.
Stoic motivation means doing what’s right. What helps you connect with others, practice kindness, gain competence and power to make a difference. Move forward. This has to be its own reward.
Stoic desire means the impulse to practice wisdom, courage, discipline, and pro-social behavior.
Stoic aversion is avoiding thoughts and actions that hold you back, waste your time — controlling what’s beyond your influence.
He adds,
“the things up to us are naturally free, unimpeded, and unconstrained, while the things not up to us are powerless, servile, impeded, and not our own. Keep this in mind then: if you think things naturally servile are free and that things not our own are ours, you will be frustrated, pained, and troubled, and you will find fault with gods and men.”
Therefore, how should we go about living?
Epictetus bids us to,
“Keep in mind that you should always behave as you would do at a banquet. Something comes around to you; stretch out your hand and politely take a portion. It passes on; don’t try to stop it. It has not come yet; don’t let your appetite run ahead, but wait till the portion reaches you. If you act like this toward your children, your wife, your public positions, and your wealth, you will be worthy one day to dine with the gods.”
The cost?
“You have to be highly motivated if you want to achieve such great goals. You will have to forego some things completely, and postpone others for the present. But if you want both at the same time—the things that are really yours plus prominence and wealth in addition—you will probably not get even the latter because of wanting the former as well, and you certainly will not get the former, which are the only way to secure freedom and happiness.”
Freedom lies in investing in what’s up to you.
This is How to Help Others
There's an addictive pull in knowing that you hold people's destiny on your lap. That you can't be replaced. It pleases the ego to know that people can't do without you.
However, it can become a shitty prison if this success diverts you from the main thing.
You end up shifting your priorities or you don't spend enough time and energy on them. And sadly, it's not until time has passed that you realize you haven't done anything worthwhile to make progress on your goals; there's emptiness in that. You might even become resentful of the same people you're trying to help, especially if they fail.
What you need to be happy is to solve problems that align with your strengths, that boost your strength while seeing, positioning and believing in other people as able humans who, with adequate support and magnanimity, can solve their own problems.
It's more prudent to be strategic when helping others so you can be free to do better work. Explore other opportunities. Or to enjoy the lifestyle you've been creating.
You therefore want to strengthen people with wisdom, opportunities and skills so they can help themselves and in extension take a problem off your bandwidth.
Why? Life is too short to be tactical with troubleshooting.
You don't want to shoulder the burden of success, which bids us to uplift others, alone.
True power is letting go of external control in the form of being needed by others because they’re not your full responsibility.
You have your destiny and perfection to chip at. They have theirs.
Aim for expansion. Not to keep solving problems that could have been avoided by extending goodwill to others — making them independent.
Freedom lies in freeing others.
This is Where Excitement Resides
Excitement is in the set-up: laying down the foundation that’ll prove useful weeks, months, or years down the line.
The countless repetitions, the attention to detail, the building of relationships, the improvement of weaknesses; all of it waiting for one blow to create a masterpiece.
Stress tolerance, then, is how you hold your destiny in your hands.
Your rise or fall depends on how well you’re handling the pressure to conform — working on something easy, safe, and short-term and how well you’re fighting your inherent impatience and the dark impulses to self-sabotage.
You can see stress as the tax you have to pay to amass power, strength, and influence.
Freedom lies in perception.
I wish you a great week ahead.
Antonius Veritus.
This post contains what must be thoroughly understood down to our bones, and yet, it slips by us because it is so straightforward and easily missed, since, it is simple to understand but not esoteric enough for us to play very close attention to.
Epictetus is not someone to dismiss because his language is not as elegant as Marcus Aurelius. He is calling to us — Now — and his message has arrived traveling 1,880 years to get here — now.
I did not feel the full gravity of it’s meaning and power at first and up to the 20th time I read it….but from time to time other writer’s parse what Epictetus is pointing out directly to us and by memorizing key passages that open up a portal of direct transmission to the message a new understanding dawns and what is revealed to us is — that we are “veiled” in various ways that we don’t see, therefore, the power in the words used in the writing and — the words do not — crack us open enough to actually “grok” the full power of it’s meaning — as an integral part of — our being.
So true. ❤️